No New Tale To Tell

Ah, the ages-old question of what women really want.
As if we're foreign beings or something. The idea that most authors of this period put forward - since, for the most part, none of them were female - was that women were these indescribably alien creatures with silly ulterior motives and not a bit intellectually inclined. What I think Chaucer illustrates well with the tale of the wife of Bath - and I love him for this - is that women are equal to men, a concept quite ludicrous in the Middle Ages, and still, to some extent, to this day.
Side note: I don't think that this applies to everyone. Feminism isn't about tearing men down until they're equal to the second-class level of women; rather, it means to build women up until they are equal to the status of men. I think what women really want is to be treated like any other human being - they want to be able to make their own decisions, and hopefully have a partner that loves and supports them for it. Some women will choose to dominate their husbands - something that was so uncommon in those days - and some will choose to be old-fashioned "housewives", and there's nothing wrong with that either. The problem that feminists have is people assuming that you have to be one way or another, and that really ticks us off.
But, really though, the Wife of Bath is just a great character. Not only does she settle the gender debate, she also settles the debate on this idea of a "caste" system and what it means to be poor.
Moral of the story? Women aren't things and can't be told what to do; it's not where you come from, it's where you're going; and money can't buy you happiness.
Really, there's no new tale to tell.